FIG. 1 shows a stripper roller subassembly 900 of the sort used in conventional agricultural stripper units of mechanized devices for stripping, picking, and harvesting of cotton or other such agricultural crops planted in rows on farms. For example, the stripper roller subassembly 900 shown in FIG. 1 is typical of that employed in the stripper row heads of products such as the 7460 Cotton Stripper® (registered trademark of John Deere & Company of Moline, Ill., USA) manufactured by John Deere & Company of Moline, Ill., USA.
As can be seen by FIG. 1, such conventional stripper roller subassemblies 900 are heavy and contain many separate parts held together by threaded fasteners or otherwise requiring tools, including specialized tools, for assembly and disassembly. For example, the stripper roller subassembly 900 shown in FIG. 1 has a total of 122 components that are held together by a large assortment of hardware including nuts, bolts, washers, and pins, just a portion of which are indicated in the drawing by reference numeral 905.
Despite the large number of parts and difficulty of assembly and disassembly, however, there is in practice frequent need to carry out disassembly and reassembly, often in the field and often without access to more than only the simplest of tools. For example, brushes and/or batts mounted on stripper rollers wear out and must be replaced even under normal operating conditions. Furthermore, when plant stalks get caught within a rotating stripper roller subassembly, this can cause accelerated wear to occur where the plant stalk presses against the brush or batt. Moreover, operators of such mechanized devices for stripping, picking, and harvesting will often want to vary the number and arrangement of brushes and/or batts that are mounted on stripper rollers in correspondence to field, crop, weather, and moisture conditions.
However, the number of components, complexity of design, and use of threaded fasteners or other hardware requiring specialized tools for removal and/or reassembly make the stripper roller subassembly difficult to maintain and service in the field. Furthermore, such agricultural machinery is exposed to the elements, such as operating in the presence of soil or sand in outdoor weather conditions, meaning that dirt, moisture, and other contaminants will cause nuts, bolts, and screws to rust and seize in place, making disassembly difficult.
There is therefore a need to carry out such changeovers and repairs quickly and conveniently in the field by personnel without specialized training and without access to anything but the most commonly available tools.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address such deficiencies and inadequacies.